National Assembly passes Constitution of Kenya (Amendment) Bill, 2025
On Tuesday, July 1, 2025, the National Assembly passed the Constitution of Kenya (Amendment) Bill, 2025. The Bill seeks to entrench three public funds: the National Government Constituencies Development Fund (NG-CDF), the Senate Oversight Fund (SOF) and the National Government Affirmative Action Fund (NGAAF). It was passed unanimously in both Second and Third Readings with 304 and 298 votes respectively.
The Bill is currently before the courts. It seeks to give constitutional protection to the three funds. According to the Bill, NG-CDF is to promote equitable delivery of national government services at the constituency level, mainly in education and infrastructure. SOF is to enhance the Senate’s oversight of county governments while NGAAF is to support vulnerable groups including women, youth and persons with disabilities.
After passing the National Assembly, the Bill will be sent to the Senate for consideration and then to the President for assent. But the amendment process is still in court.
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On May 2, 2025, Katiba Institute together with several civil society organisations filed a constitutional petition challenging the amendment. In the petition, Katiba Institute argued that the Bill is unnecessary and inconsistent with the constitutional framework on public finance. The Institute said the funds are already operational under existing statutory mechanisms including the Public Finance Management Act and its subsidiary regulations.
Specifically, the petitioners said NGAAF is being implemented through the Public Finance Management Act (National Government Affirmative Action Fund) Regulations, 2016. They noted that Article 206(1)(a) of the Constitution already allows for the establishment of special-purpose funds within the law, making a constitutional amendment unnecessary.
The petitioners also raised concerns on the constitutional procedure for amendment. They said certain provisions of the Bill should trigger a national referendum which would require the enactment of a Referendum Law – an obligation Parliament has failed to meet since the promulgation of the Constitution in 2010.
The High Court in an interim ruling delivered on June 5, 2025 by Justice Lawrence Mugambi allowed Parliament to debate and forward the Bill to the Senate, but barred further progression including presidential assent until the matter is heard and determined.
The case is still pending.
National Assembly passes Constitution of Kenya (Amendment) Bill, 2025
